Police: Chiefs’ Belcher kills girlfriend, self KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — It began like any other Saturday for the Kansas City Chiefs during the NFL season, their general manager and coach at work early to put final touches on this weekend’s gameplan. Then they got a call to hurry to the parking lot. The two men rushed through the glass doors of Chiefs headquarters and came face-to-face with linebacker Jovan Belcher, holding a handgun to his head. Belcher had already killed his girlfriend and...

Saving face: Indiana man removing Romney-Ryan tattoo MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man who had the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan campaign logo tattooed onto his face “to make politics fun” says it’s time for it to come off. Eric Hartsburg of Michigan City, Ind., said he plans to have the red-and-blue “R” removed from its prominent place next to his right eye. He said a Republican supporter paid him $15,000 to get the tattoo and keep it until at least the election was over. Weeks after Pr...

NJ train derailment tips tankers, sickens dozens PAULSBORO, N.J. (AP) — A freight train derailed Friday on a railroad bridge that has had problems before, toppling tanker cars partially into a creek and causing a leak of hazardous gas that was blamed for sickening dozens of people, authorities said. After hours of not registering at all on sensors, the level of the dangerous chemical spiked Friday evening, prompting authorities to evacuate people from several blocks around the site of the de...

Missouri lottery winners want to live normally DEARBORN, Mo. (AP) — To announce one of the biggest events of their lives together, Cindy and Mark Hill returned to the place where it all began — the high school where they became sweethearts in the 1970s. Surrounded by family and friends, the two were introduced Friday as winners in this week’s huge Powerball lottery — an extraordinary stroke of luck that gives them half of the $588 million jackpot. The nostalgic high school homecoming seeme...

Pressuring GOP, Obama takes his fiscal plan to PennsylvaniaHATFIELD, Pa. (AP) — President Barack Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a “lump of coal” for Christmas, while Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations to surmount a looming fiscal cliff are going “almost nowhere.” Obama took his case to an audience in a Philadelphia suburb, saying that this move would present a “Scrooge Christmas” for millions of wage-earners. Speaking ...

Shoppers’ habits not changed by garment plant fire NEW YORK (AP) — Before purchasing a shirt, shoppers will run their hands over the fabric, look at the price tag and wonder how it will hold up in the washing machine. Some might even ask if it makes them look fat. The one detail, however, that is rarely considered: What are the conditions like for the workers making the shirt? A horrific fire that raced through a Bangladesh garment factory Saturday, killing 112 people, has put the spotlight — ...

No estimate on reopening Liberty Island; statue OK NEW YORK (AP) — The Statue of Liberty survived Superstorm Sandy with every crown spike in place, but its surrounding island was so badly damaged that the National Park Service doesn’t know when the beloved tourist attraction will reopen or how much repairs will cost. A tour of Liberty Island on Friday showed broken railings, torn-up paving stones, damaged equipment and flood-wrecked buildings. The storm destroyed boilers, sewage pumps and elec...

Police: Wyo. murder-suicide happened during class CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed one person in a Casper neighborhood Friday before killing a male teacher and himself in front of students in a community college classroom, causing a campus-wide lockdown as authorities tried to piece together what happened. Police found the suspect and teacher dead at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down for about two hours, school and police offi...

Wisconsin mini horse rings bell for Salvation Army WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) — Tinker may be miniature — as in a miniature horse — but he’s a big money raiser for the Salvation Army. He uses his mouth to hold and ring a red bell and also picks up with his mouth a “Thank You Merry Christmas” sign. He can also bow and give kisses. Major Roger Ross, a Salvation Army commander, said Tinker is one of their biggest money raisers in the area: He brings in 10 times the amount of a regular bell ringer. “A g...

Mo. mechanic, his wife named Powerball winnersDEARBORN, Mo. (AP) — A 52-year-old Missouri mechanic and his wife claimed their share Friday of the record $588 million Powerball jackpot. Lottery officials sent a statement announcing that Mark and Cindy Hill, of Dearborn, held one of two winning tickets for the nation’s biggest Powerball jackpot. “It’s really going to be nice to spend time — not have to work — and be able to take trips with our family,” Cindy Hill, a former office manager la...

ConAgra gobbles up store brands with Ralcorp dealNEW YORK (AP) — ConAgra Foods is set to become the nation's biggest maker of store brand foods, with its $5 billion purchase of Ralcorp expanding its stake in the fast-growing market for cereals, crackers and other packaged foods sold under private labels. The deal caps a year of acquisitions for ConAgra, which makes Banquet, Chef Boyardee and Marie Callender's. The company, based in Omaha, Neb., also snapped up brands including National Pretz...

Sheriff: Man opened fire on 2 Alabama deputies FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP) — The shootout that left one Alabama deputy sheriff dead and another in critical condition on Saturday began when they checked on a man at his mobile home and he opened fire on them, authorities said. Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack told AL.com (http://bit.ly/TcX1yC ) that gunfire erupted Friday after Michael Jansen pulled a handgun on Deputy Scott Ward and his colleagues outside of Jansen's Fairhope-area home. Ward was fa...

Larry Hagman as J.R.: A TV villain for all ages NEW YORK (AP) — One reason "Dallas" became a cultural phenomenon like none other is that Larry Hagman never took its magnitude for granted. During an interview last June, he spoke of returning to Dallas and the real-life Southfork Ranch some months earlier to resume his role of J.R. Ewing for the TNT network's revival of the series. There at Southfork, now a major tourist attraction, he came upon a wall-size family tree diagramming the entangl...

Massachusetts natural gas explosion damaged 42 buildings SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Preliminary investigations show more than 40 buildings were damaged in a natural gas explosion in Massachusetts that injured 18 people, building inspectors said Saturday. A strip club was flattened and a day care center was heavily damaged in the massive blast Friday night in Springfield, one of New England's biggest cities. Investigators were trying Saturday to figure out what caused the blast that could be heard for...

Thanksgiving steals sales from Black Friday Thanksgiving shopping took a noticeable bite out of Black Friday's start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail sales in stores fell slightly from last year. Saturday's report from retail technology company ShopperTrak finds consumers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the U.S. That is down 1.8 percent from last year's total. This year's Friday results appear to have been tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hittin...

Disabled parents face bias, loss of kids: report Millions of Americans with disabilities have gained innumerable rights and opportunities since Congress passed landmark legislation on their behalf in 1990. And yet advocates say barriers and bias still abound when it comes to one basic human right: To be a parent. A Kansas City, Mo., couple had their daughter taken into custody by the state two days after her birth because both parents were blind. A Chicago mother, because she is quadriplegic...

Immigrants struggle to cope in Sandy's aftermath NEW YORK (AP) — Superstorm Sandy plunged some immigrants living illegally in the U.S. into darkness and even deeper into the shadows. Some of those who need help to get temporary housing and food are afraid to come forward because they risk deportation. And many have returned to damaged, powerless, moldy homes because they have no other place to stay. "My son has asthma and now he is worse. The house has this smell of humidity and sea water," ...

A checklist to see whether debt reduction is real WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and leaders of the lame-duck Congress may be just weeks away from shaking hands on a deal to avert the dreaded "fiscal cliff." So it's natural to wonder: If they announce a bipartisan package promising to curb mushrooming federal deficits, will it be real? Both sides have struck cooperative tones since Obama's re-election. Even so, he and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the GOP's pivotal bargainer, ...

Gas blast levels Massachusetts strip club; 18 people hurt SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A natural gas explosion in one of New England's biggest cities on Friday leveled a strip club with a boom heard for miles and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings but didn't kill anyone, authorities said. Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers in the area because of an earlier gas leak and odor report were among the 18 people injured in the blast, authorities said. "This is a miracle on Worthington S...

Black Friday creeps into Thanksgiving permanently? This season could mark the end of Black Friday as we know it. For decades, stores have opened their doors in the wee hours on the day after Thanksgiving. But this year, major chains such as Target and Sears ushered in customers on Thanksgiving itself, even before the turkey leftovers had gotten cold, turning the traditional busiest shopping day of the year into a two-day affair. Despite an outcry from some employees, both stores and shoppers s...